It is smart to (if you have the bot software) watch the bottom newsline. Because all alt-coin are tracked while the software runs and it will show the coins that are the most pumped. Of course the view is still limited. But it does the trick.

Viacoin was created with the idea of having a large OP RETURN this allows small ammounts of data to be stored in transactions. Bitcoin used to have an OP RETURN of 80 bytes but the core devs decided that they didnt like that, that it allows blockchain "spam" this created the situhation that the project Counterparty XCP had to swich over and use mutlisig instead of OP RETURN.

What is all this? Counterparty is open source software that allows for token creation and a decentral exchange on top of a blockchain. So instead of creating a new coin you can "color" some coins and have them represent things, be tokens, shares, and a lot of other interesing uses. However some devs look at this as being kind of parsitic because the dev team from counterparty is not the same as the core dev team of bitcoin. Therefore Viacoin took the advice of the bitcoin core devs who at the time suggested that all of this should be done on an Altchain, and it was done.

You might want to look at FLDC, there website is foldingcoin.net it is a Counterparty asset, which has many advantages over traditional wallet....and the best thing is the "mining/folding" that your doing is actually meaningful.

The following is written more from an investment perspective rather than a trading one. I've been investing in the altcoin space for about a year. I came to realize that these markets are defined by the niche the coin plays. Here are some of my leadership choices and the niche they represent. This is not investment advice - do your own due diligence!

BTC - Market penetration and acceptance - not to mention the serious venture capital flowing in.DOGE - Active and progressive community. This is what gives this coin value.RDD - Reddcoin has a well thought out Social Media architecture and good devs. XRP- Ripple is positioned well for the next generation of international currency transfers. (Think World Bank) Disruptive technology.NXT - NXT has a good first generation asset exchange. Lots of promising enterprises coming from this space.

Coins to watch

Etherium - the first truly programmable money. Being released in March.BitMark (BTM) - the first credibility coin (think online reputation) Storj coin - peer-to-peer cloud storageSapience AI - Artificial intelligence on the blockchain. Not sure about their business model, but gets points for being cool.

Here is a good site for research into the world of altcoins. I like the methodology this site uses to rank the various coins. You can click on a coin to get lots information about web sites, trading prices, market caps, etc.

I'm doing a tiny little trading with Monero (XMR), VRC and BlackCoin. It's mostly for the sake of entertainment, and I will have a total loss of 20 USD if they hit zero.

I like Monero because the team is not flimsy. They stick to their plan, and are not letting the community change the direction of the development. So, it's a strong team behind it, and they believe in what they are doing.

VRC was a random choice. BlackCoin is simply the first coin I traded with 1,5 years ago, so I keep an eye on it for that reason.

I've been reading much before investing in CNX, so Cryptonex project is quite ambitious - it offers its users pos mining which I use regulary - The profit is 12% annually and CNX price growth is not included in the income. To get the reward from mining, you I registered a web wallet, bought some CNX coins, transfered it to windows wallet. And now I just keep it online .As for CNX coin itself, it has already increased more than 7 times in 2 months and according to some predictions the coin will incerease much as Cryptonex is about to launch p2p platform and mobile app. So I recommend you have a look at CNX coin.